Old Halesonians

Hales hit top gear to brush Bournville aside

OLD Halesonians hit top gear again this week as they beat Bournville 20-3 to stay top of National Three Midlands.

After some unconvincing dispays, especially in the previous week’s win over bottom side Bedford Athletic, Hales were back firing on all cylinders and should have won by a much wider margin.

The return of Nathan Jones at scrum-half, together with brothers Carl and Andy Robinson in the centre, gave Hales more of a cutting edge and had Bournville on the defensive for almost the entire opening 40 minutes.

Bournville bagged a penalty of their own, totally against the run of play to keep the scores level at half-time.

But Bournville’s resistence was being stretched to the limit and they finally cracked when Jones provided good ball to his backs where winger Luke Smith produced a kick and chase to score in the corner, with Hooper converting.

Hooper then landed a penalty to put Hales 13-3 ahead before Bournville were reduced to 14 after prop Coles was handed a red card for punching number eight Mark Evans while he was pinned at the bottom of a ruck.

Hales continued to force the pace and produced a second try when hooker Pete Fitzgerald drove over, Hooper kicking the extras to complete the scoring.

Busy Hales take a break from league action when they travel to Shropshire side Newport on Saturday for a North Midlands Cup match.

The seconds overwhelmed a Worcester Wanderers side 53-12 with Simon Sable scoring a couple of tries while Mike Topping, Sam Jones, Harley Yeadon, Mike Whiting and Jack Lineham also breached Wanderers defence, while the remaining points came from the boot of Tom Harris.